Merry Christmas and welcome to my part of the Bones fan fiction Christmas challenge.

Here's a little background for the story: It's set forty years in the future. Christine and Michael-Vincent are happily married. Their parents are elderly but are still with us.

The chapters in this story are little vignettes, not necessarily arranged in chronological order, but more as stand alone entries.

The song lyrics which inspired me are by the late Jim Croce. No copyright infringement intended. I don't own Bones either.

I hope you enjoy this collection...

Photographs and memories,

Christmas cards you sent to me...

All that I have are these

To remember you.

Memories that come at night

Take me to another time...

-lyrics from Photographs and Memories by Jim Croce

oooooooooo

Christine Hodgins hesitated slightly before inserting the old fashioned key into the lock on her parents' front door that Saturday morning. She'd often asked them to replace it with a more modern digital lock system with a visual monitor, but her father had refused, saying that the worn brass handle had character. She rolled her eyes slightly as she remembered the heated discussion. Character...from a door knob? I guess so...

Hearing the satisfying click as she turned the key, she felt a strange sense of relief mixed with a hint of sadness. This chore had been long overdue, and there was no reason to put it off any longer. After pushing the door open, she stepped inside and took in the overwhelming flood of emotions she had always associated with her parents' house.

After a few seconds pause, she peered around the open door at the three youngsters chasing each other on the grassy lawn. "Well? Come on...I need your help, remember?"

Watching her children as they raced up the walk, Christine couldn't help but smile. As a geneticist, she understood all too well how the randomness of DNA worked in the inheritance of physical traits, but to see those factors in action as they existed in her own children held a certain fascination all its own.

Seeley, her eldest at 17, already stood well over six feet tall, and was still growing at a prodigious rate. Except for his bright blue eyes, he was the very image of his Pops, and he had the same brash personality as his namesake. A junior in high school, he was as comfortable in his Grandmother Angela's art studio as he was on the hockey rink. He was dreaming of a hockey scholarship at a university that offered a degree program in graphic arts. 'Dad would be thrilled if that happens…', Christine thought to herself. 'He'll want to go see every game...I hope Seeley picks a college close by…"

Joy, her middle child, had inherited her Grandmother Angela's exotic beauty and her Grammy Temperance's penchant for logic and scientific thought. Even though she was only twelve, her brilliant intellect was always in play, and she was taking some high school level Science and Math classes in addition to the regular seventh grade curriculum at her school. She was already talking about following her Grandmother Brennan's footsteps by studying anthropology at Northwestern. 'Mom's pleased with that, but Angela is still pushing University of Texas, isn't she? It'll be interesting to see who wins that argument...'

"Come on, slowpoke. Quit looking for bugs.", Christine teased as she grinned at her youngest, who was bringing up the rear. Nine year old Max was the wild card of the bunch...his blonde curls framed big hazel eyes that were always full of mischief. It had seemed that as soon as he could talk, her baby boy had exhibited the same ornery sense of humor as his grandfather, or PaJack, as the elder Hodgins was known, and also the same interest in insects, minerals, soil and as many other weird and messy things as he could get his hands on. The child was truly brilliant, with an eidetic memory which he put to good use in memorizing the scientific names for the latest members of his insect zoo.

"No more critters, okay?", Christine said firmly. "That's all we need...another six legged pet…"

"But, Mom...look…" He held a ladybug in the palm of his hand. "It's a fine example of Hippodamia septempunctata…"

"Well, it's time for her to fly away home...we have work to do. Come on…"

He puffed out a gentle breath on his hand and the little insect quickly made her escape. "Okay…"

Oooooooooo

Finally the little group was assembled in the foyer of the old house, ready to begin their work for today. Sighing softly, Christine led them into the family room. "Okay, so Grammy and Pops are getting ready to move into their new place…"

Max's lower lip protruded slightly. "Aww...that makes me sad, Mom. I'm gonna miss coming here...they have such cool stuff to look at…"

"I know, Buddy, but it's too hard for them to take care of this house any more. Besides...they've kept a lot of things...and that's not the real reason for us to go see them anyway, right? They're fun to talk to..." Sniffling quietly, Christine furtively brushed away a tear. She didn't want this to be a sad occasion for her children, but the truth was that her parents were in their eighties and had begun to exhibit some signs of failing health. Unlike her in-laws, who had chosen to stay in their home with a live in nurse, it had been decided that Pops and Grammy would sell their house and move into a nearby retirement center.

At first, Christine had been disappointed with their choice, knowing that they, too, could afford to stay in their home if they had some help, but her strong-willed mother would not be swayed by any attempt to persuade them against moving. "We don't want you to worry about us, Christine. We won't be prisoners there at the center. We can come and go as we please. Anyway, you know that if we stay in this house, your father will always find something that needs to be done around here, and with his mobility issues…well, it's just not feasible. This way, you can live your life, and we can still be involved with our grandchildren without having the upkeep of a house to concern us."

And so the decision was made, and the house had been sold. With Parker teaching at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut and Hank managing a Google data center in Belgium, most of the time and energy involved in getting the house ready to sell had fallen on Michael-Vincent and Christine, but their schedules working in academia had allowed them the flexibility to do so easily. Not surprisingly, the house had sold quickly, and now there was just the final task of making sure everything had been made ready for the new occupants.

"Um...Mom? I thought you said you needed some help with the house…"

Seeley's deep voice roused Christine from her reverie. "That's right...I do." She winked at her eldest son. "Let me guess...you're in a hurry, right? You have a date? Who is it tonight?" Seeing his shy blush and his siblings' grins, she chuckled. "Never mind. Yes, we have work to do." She looked around the room. "I know it looks like the house is ready to go, but I want to make sure everything is out, okay? We need to check closets, shelves, drawers...you never know where Pops may have stuck things he wants to save, right? So it's kind of like a treasure hunt."

Laughing, Joy agreed. "Pops is kind of a packrat, isn't he?"

"That he is...and so is Grammy, even though she doesn't think so." Christine pointed at a large cabinet. "Some of the furniture is staying with the house, since it was designed for it, so we need to look through those pieces as well. If you find something, and you aren't sure it's important, just put it on the kitchen counter, and we'll sort through it later, okay?"

Seeing her children nod in understanding, Christine passed out their assignments. "Max, you need to look in all of the bathroom cabinets and drawers. Joy, I need you to go through the kitchen cabinets and the pantry." Grinning up at Seeley, she shrugged slightly. "You get all the top shelves in all of the closets, and I also need you to dust the light fixtures, okay? I'm going to be in the master bedroom. Ready? Go!"

The kids quickly took up their tasks, curious to see if they'd find any real treasures as they looked through the vacant house. Their grandparents had led such interesting lives, and every artifact seemed to have a story attached to it...a story which Pops and Grammy would tell with great delight, often bickering over the details as they related the tale to their grandchildren.

Wandering into the master bedroom with its adjoining bathroom, Christine was once again overcome with a flood of memories. As a little girl, she'd been fascinated with watching her father shave with a real razor and foamy suds, and it had been so much fun to look through all of his brightly colored neckties as he chose one for his work day. Glancing at the place where the bed had stood, she smiled as she remembered curling up with her mother as they read a book or occasionally had watched a movie together, after her mother had allowed a television to be installed on the dresser.

No more procrastinating...I need to get busy. The dresser was staying with the house since her parents' new retirement apartment had built in storage, so she decided to start with it first. After pulling out the drawers, she looked to make sure nothing had been lost between the dresser and the walls. Satisfied, she replaced them and moved into the closet.

It was empty now. The massive collection of old band tee shirts was gone, as well as her mother's formal dresses and her father's suits and his immaculately pressed dress shirts. Her parents had both retired twenty years ago, but they'd kept their dress clothes for special events, or for her mother's occasional personal appearances in support of a favorite charity. However, those items were no longer necessary. At the retirement center, the dress code was sweatpants and sweaters, and her parents had only kept what they'd needed to be comfortable for their lives there.

Christine was about to turn off the closet light when something caught her eye. Staring up at an upper shelf, she muttered to herself. "What is that?" Looking around, she hoped to find a step stool, but seeing none, she decided to use the next best thing.

"Seeley?", she called. "I need you to help me with something…"

He came loping into the room. "What's up, Mom?"

She simply pointed to the upper shelf. "Can you reach that? I don't know what it is, but…"

"Yeah, no problem." He stretched out his long arms and brought down the dusty object as a piece of newspaper fluttered down to the floor. "It looks like some sort of book…"

Christine brushed past him to pick up the stained and tattered clipping. She gasped in surprise as she saw the headline on the article.

Best Selling Author Weds FBI Special Agent in DC Garden Ceremony

"What is it?" Seeley peered over his mother's shoulder. "Wait...is that…"

"Yes…" Gently running her fingers over the faded black and white photograph accompanying the article, she nodded. "This is about Pops and Grammy's wedding...over 45 years ago."

"Hey, Mom?" Joy stood in the doorway, wondering what her mother was looking at. "I wanna see it…"

"Sure, Honey...here, look. It's a picture of Pops and Grammy from when they got married."

Studying the picture intently, Joy was amazed. "Mom...Grammy was so pretty! She looks like a princess in that dress!"

"Grammy does look beautiful, doesn't she?" Christine blinked back her tears as she nodded in agreement. "And Pops looks slick in that tuxedo, too, right?" A wistful smile played across her face as she saw how her parents were looking at each other...so much in love...just like they were now. Nothing could ever change that...

"So you may not know this…" She paused as Max came to join them. "...but your Grandma Angela planned Grammy and Pops' wedding in one day...actually, it was just part of a day, if you want to be precise. Grammy and Pops had a church picked out for the ceremony, but it burned down the night before the wedding. It looked like they were going to have to postpone the wedding to a later date, but you know your Grandma A...once she gets her mind set on something…"

"She gets it done!", Joy giggled. "So then what happened?"

"Well, Grammy's father showed up unexpectedly with some money, and so Grandma A took it and then arranged for the wedding to be held in the rose garden of the Jeffersonian. Grammy already had a dress, and Pops already had his tuxedo, so they just had to quickly move everything around to get the garden ready...you know, food, flowers, chairs, musicians...things like that. I guess your Grandma A and PaJack made a whole bunch of frantic phone calls to tell the guests about the change of venue, so everyone could make it there in time…"

"Really? Wow…" Seeley was impressed by the effort it had taken to pull off such a massive undertaking in such a short period of time. "But why didn't Grandma A just wait until a later date? I mean, Pops and Grammy could've gotten married somewhere else at a different time…"

Christine laughed out loud. "Your Grandma A wanted to make sure Pops and Grammy wouldn't chicken out of the wedding. She said she'd waited so long for those two to get together, and by golly, she was going to make sure it happened like it was supposed to."

"That sounds just like Grandma!", Joy said happily. Pointing at her older brother, she wrinkled her nose. "What's that dusty old thing?"

Seeley shrugged as he knocked some dust from the cover. "It looks like an old scrapbook of some sort…"

Gently taking it from her son, Christine found herself sniffling again. "I wondered what had happened to this book...it was one of the few things that had survived from Grammy and Pops' first house after it burned." She paused slightly, deciding not to share that sad story just yet. "Luckily, it had been stored in a safe in the basement for some reason. Grammy went and got it from the ruins as soon as she could." Opening the cover, she showed the contents to her children. "It's a photo album and memory book. Look...you can see where Grammy has put items in neatly…"

"And how Pops just sorta jammed things in there.", Max chuckled, reaching for the book. "I wanna look at it…"

Glancing at her phone, Christine shook her head. "We need to finish up here first. I tell you, what...let's get our work done, and then we can look at this book when we get home. I'm sure your Dad will want to see it, too. Okay? Chop chop…"

As her children ran off to finish their chores, Christine cradled the scrapbook tenderly against her chest. No matter what else they found in the house that day, she knew they'd found the greatest treasure of all...the memories of her parents' long and happy lives together.

Thanks for reading. If you have time to review, I'd appreciate it.